The invention relates to a contact assembly for a combined power and data connector. The invention further relates to a socket assembly for a mating connector socket.
In order to save material and installation costs of connections between electronic devices which need to be connected with electric power cables and data cables, the provision of combined power and data connectors is desired. In the prior art, the Power over Ethernet (PoE) standard is known and widely used. In this standard, data lines of standard network cables are used to transmit electric power for connected devices additionally to the data signals. Due to the low wire cross-section of the wires which are used in standard Ethernet cables and the low cross-sections of the used contact pins in standard Ethernet connectors, only a limited amount of electric power can be transmitted through the cables to a device.